UMass event sheds light on area Latinos

Tuesday

Jul 2, 2013 at 12:01 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Health, employment, income, home ownership, school performance — it's no revelation that these are all areas in which Latinos lag behind. Just how far behind was the subject of a recent workshop on Latinos of Southeastern Massachusetts.

SIMÓN RIOS

NEW BEDFORD — Health, employment, income, home ownership, school performance — it's no revelation that these are all areas in which Latinos lag behind. Just how far behind was the subject of a recent workshop on Latinos of Southeastern Massachusetts.

"Please listen to our problem," said Adrian Ventura, director of Centro Comunitario Trabajadores, an immigrant workers center in New Bedford.

Ventura spoke at an event hosted by the UMass Boston Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy event, at which academics delved into the most recent data on the region's Latinos.

Ventura addressed the treatment of immigrants in the health care system. "When you go to the clinic in New Bedford the first thing they ask is if you have an ID," he said through an interpreter. "This is the problem that we face every day."

Not only do many not have identification, Ventura said, but they can't speak English and often don't have health insurance. Without insurance, Ventura said people end up owing thousands of dollars to doctors and it scares them from returning.

Held at the United Fisherman's Club last week, the annual workshop on the state's Latinos was the third of its kind, preceded by workshops in Lawrence and Springfield.

The region has experienced a dramatic shift in its ethnic makeup, according to data given in a series of talks, with the Latino population increasing and whites decreasing. Since 2000, Fall River's Latinos have increased by more than 100 percent, while the white population declined 10 percent. In New Bedford, Latinos grew by 59 percent, as whites declined by nearly 11 percent.

Phillip Granberry, a research associate at the Gaston Institute, discussed socio-demographic trends among Latinos in SouthCoast's four gateway cities. Of those cities, New Bedford's Latinos comprise the largest share of the population, at about 15 percent, compared to Fall River at less than 7 percent.

Of people 25 and older, 53 percent of Latinos in the Whaling City do not have a high school diploma, compared to 28 percent of whites. That disparity holds true for college as well, as twice as many whites (17 percent) hold a bachelor's degree or above.

The median age for whites in New Bedford is 39, while Latinos' median age is 24.

Nearly 17 percent of the city's Latinos are unemployed versus 9 percent of whites. Whites also earn more than Latinos, with a median income of $40,028 compared to $25,651.

Brian Pastori, an organizer at Community Economic Development Center, said Latinos comprise up to 40 percent of bus riders. But Pastori said the current routes and schedules need to be expanded to meet the needs of the community.

"This is a huge potential population," he said. "We're talking about hundreds of jobs, hundreds of riders every day that would get on the bus."

Pastori said non-English speakers often have trouble on city buses. "It would be great if the people working the desk were bilingual or trilingual," he said. "It would help a lot."